


Bared

by ungoodpirate



Series: so many ways to be close [6]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: D/s undertones, Love Confessions, M/M, Malec, POV Magnus Bane, Praise Kink, actually not porn, affirmations, mature but not that mature, or overtones, sexytimes and emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:50:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7184024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ungoodpirate/pseuds/ungoodpirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You like it when I tell you what to do,” Magnus says. He doesn’t need to specify ‘during sexytimes.’</p>
<p>“I trust you,” Alec says.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Magnus and Alec negotiate some bedroom dynamics (and also matters of the heart).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bared

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who have not read the rest of the series: You really don't need to to understand this, but if you enjoy this you might enjoy them. There is one reference to events in the previous stories in this one. 
> 
>  
> 
> For those of you who have read the rest of the series: This is a bit of a jump in the timeline and in the progress of Magnus and Alec's relationship from the previous installments. I will probably go back and fill some of that in eventually, but inspiration striked here.

 

When Magnus leads Alec’s hands to the headboard,then ghosts his fingers back down the long length of Alec’s arms, Alec shivers. 

 

“Keep them there,” Magnus says. Alec’s grip tightens reactively, jaw tense.

 

Magnus leans down over him, kisses him and kisses him until his expression loosens. 

 

It’s one of  _ those _ nights. Since they gotten intimidate, and since Alec had grown comfortable initiating, certain days Alec would arrive at Magnus’ loft and tell him, after a lingering hello kiss, ‘I need you.’ His voice would be low and clotted and needy in a certain kind of way. They’d talk about it later, after, whatever had gone wrong: the Clave giving idiotic orders, an argument with his parents, a mission that ended in some kind of failure -- whether strategic or a fellow fighter getting hurt. 

 

In the moment, it was just them, stripping all of that away. 

 

Magnus kisses his way across and down Alec's chest then abs then lower.  

 

Alec goes white-knuckled. 

 

...

 

When Magnus finishes Alec off with his hand, he whispers a series of platitudes into Alec’s ear as Alec can only utter a nonsense combination of words -- swears and ‘Magnus’ and ‘Please.’

 

Magnus says, “Come for me, darling.” When Alec does, Magnus says, “Good boy.” 

 

Completely undone and vulnerable, Alec shudders. Magnus tilts his head, files away this reaction for later consideration. 

 

For now, he massages Alec’s newly freed hands for cramps, cleans up the mess across his stomach, pulls up a blanket over both of them. 

 

Magnus curls up along Alec’s side; Alec turns to face him, nose-to-nose.

 

“How’re you feeling?” Magnus asks.

 

“Relaxed,” Alec says. “Better… Happy I’m here with you.”

Magnus traces his fingers over the shape of Alec’s deflect rune. “And before you were here with me…?”

 

“My mother visited the Institute.” That was all that needed to be said. “You?”

 

“Boring until you got here, darling.”

 

It’s too early to go to bed proper, so after they gather their energy, they move out into the living room. Alec is starfished out on the couch redressed in his now wrinkled clothes. Although Magnus has assured him it would be more than acceptable and appreciated even, Alec is yet to be comfortable lounging around in states of undress except in the bedroom.  

 

After Magnus clears their takeout dishes away, he comes back but doesn’t sit down right away. 

 

Surveying Alec from across the room, he asks, “Do you like what we do in bed?” 

 

Alec gives Magnus a look like he’s stupid -- raised eyebrows, twisted mouth. “Yes,” he says after he gets the impression through. “I thought that was obvious.”

 

“I apologize,” Magnus says with a wave of a wrist, sauntering forward. “That was a leading question. I’m usually much more forward.” 

 

“Extremely forward,” Alec replies, his humor dry but amused. 

 

But as Magnus approaches, setting a knee on one side of Alec’s legs, and then the other, straddling him, Alec freezes. 

 

Magnus runs the pad of his thumb down across Alec’s lips, then rests his hand on the side of Alec’s neck. 

 

“What I mean is… you like it when I tell you what to do,” Magnus says. He doesn’t need to specify ‘during sexytimes.’

 

“I trust you,” Alec says.

 

“I’m glad.” Magnus runs his hand down to Alec’s pectoral. “But it’s more than that.” 

 

Alec’s eyes dart to the side, as they often do when he’s avoiding something. 

 

“No need to be ashamed,” Magnus says. “It’s exhilarating, finding out what someone likes in bed. And you’re finding out for yourself for the first time.” 

 

Magnus couldn’t get over how  _ honored _ he felt that he was the one Alec was willing to shed his armor for, more than anyone else. When they had met, Alec had been solemn and stern and repressed, and now he was flourishing. 

 

Alec opens and closes his mouth twice, gearing up to say something. Magnus waits with curious patience. 

 

“Sometimes I like not having to overthink everything. When I’m here with you…” He swallows. “I trust you,” he says again. Magnus gets it, what he’s saying and not saying. Alec trusts Magnus to take care of him, to understand his needs, to not take advantage. And Alec’s trust is not laid out easily. 

 

“Also,” Alec says, volunteering more than Magnus expected but not to his displeasure. “I like it when I do something you say and then you say all these nice things…”

 

“You mean you like it when I call you wonderful?”

 

A flush forms up Alec’s neck. Magnus doesn’t mean to embarrass him. He knows how much Alec doubts himself, probably thinks this a childish thing to like and crave: the seeking of approval. Part of Magnus is mad, at Maryse and Robert Lightwood, for however they raised Alec to make him so lonely and closed off. For making it so hard for Alec to accept it was okay to want love and approval and space to be comfortably himself. 

 

It’s no time to be angry now. 

 

Instead, Magnus slides his hand between their bodies, cupping Alec where he was getting hard behind his jeans. Alec grunts, shuts his eyes. Magnus wants Alec to know that although Magnus is teasing, he’s only doing it because teasing is a better part of his personality. 

 

He leans in closer, using his other arm to brace him with just centimeters between their chests. 

 

“You like it when I call you beautiful? When I call you strong? When I call you…” He skates a passing kiss to Alec’s temple. “Divine.” 

 

Alec inhales, sharply. Magnus can feel at his hand between them that Alec indeed does like it. 

 

“Do you like it when I tell you…” Magnus says, drawing out this crown jewel for last, “That you’re being such a good, good boy for me.”

 

“Yes,” Alec pants out, exasperated and invigorated and needy. 

 

Magnus wonders if he can bring Alec off like this, with just his words and the slight pressure of his hand. 

 

“What do you want right now, darling?” Magnus asks. 

 

Alec takes in two unsteady, long breathes. “Bedroom,” he finally says. 

 

Magnus strips off his shirt along the way. Alec stands unsure just inside the doorway; Magnus decides to start easy on him.

 

“Touch me,” he says. 

 

Alec’s wide hands find their way to Magnus’ waist as he kisses Magnus like he’s hungry. 

 

Magnus steps back, holding out an arm to prevent Alec from moving with him. 

 

“Take off your shirt.”

 

Alec fumbles with his buttons. Although Magnus has now seen Alec shirtless plenty of times, there's always something tantalizing in the reveal.

 

“Good boy.”

 

“Don’t,” Alec says, sounding choked, “toy with me.”

 

Magnus smirks. “Now take off all the rest of it,” he says with a lazy, flick of a gesture at Alec’s pants.

 

Alec obeys. Bare, Alec stood clenching and unclenching his empty hands at his side as Magnus drinks in the sight of him.

 

“Alexander, every inch of you is magnificent. It's as if you looks were carved by the great Michelangelo himself.”

 

Alec rolls his eyes but grins at the same time. The compliment was perhaps too flowery for his simple tastes. 

 

“Now get on the bed so that I can proceed to do sinful things to you.”

 

...

 

“If you have any other undisclosed desires, please feel free to share, Alexander. I’m very open-minded.” 

 

“Magnus…”

 

“Like if you ever feel the urge to take control… y’know, hold me down, tie me up… Did I mention how open-minded I was?”

 

“Magnus, stop,” Alec says around laughter. “Don’t try and get me worked up again --”

 

“So the thought of that  _ does _ get you worked up.”

 

“ -- I don’t think I can move right now, or for the next hour.”

 

Magnus rolls over, propping himself up above Alec, looking down at him. Kinder, pleased, he says, “I exhausted you?”

 

“Yeah…” Alec says. “And I, uh, beat up a punching bag for two hours before I came over.” The implication being, after whatever his mother had said or done. 

 

“You know I mean it, right?” Magnus says. “Whenever I call you beautiful or amazing. It’s not the heat of the moment. It’s not me trying to ply you with compliments. I… care very deeply for you, Alexander.” 

 

They hadn’t shared those three little words yet, though Magnus felt them in his heart, said them with his eyes, in his tone, in his touch, in every way that he could.

 

Back, many weeks ago, when Alec had been injured, Magnus had realized, silently, the depths of his feelings for Alec. Plainly stated: that he loved him. 

 

At the time, Magnus had decided to keep it to himself, under the excuse that it was too soon, that to admit it then would scare Alec away. A convenient excuse, but it turned out not to be Alec’s fear holding him back, Magnus realized, as more time passed and more right times to share it. It was Magnus’ own fear. 

 

He’s still afraid to open himself up to love. To admit it aloud, to Alec, would be to lay down all his cards. That’d be it, and his heart would be bare for bruising.

 

Magnus doesn’t know what makes tonight different from all the other nights and morning and middays that had come before. He doesn’t know if it had been something Maryse had said, or the new kind of intimacy they had shared, or the late hour and true exhaustion rendering Alec barrier-less. 

 

Alec blinks slowly, almost drunkenly, although they hadn’t touched a drop tonight, staring right up at Magnus. 

 

“I love you,” Alec says. Not like a confession, but like an aftermath. Like the end of an equation where there is only one, obvious answer. 

 

Alec, his darling Alexander, always surprising Magnus, weaving his way past Magnus’ defenses, from the moment he smiled at their first introduction. 

 

Magnus says, “I love you too.” 

 

Alec lets out a breath he had been holding, “Oh.” Like he’s a little surprised Magnus said it back. 

 

“Darling,” Magnus says, as neither of them blinks, as neither of them dares. “Immensely.” 

 

Alec wraps an arm around Magnus’ waist, pulls him down to lay on his chest, knitted together, skin-to-skin, and for the night, unbreakable.  

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Comments are always appreciated (because I love to hear what you think!)


End file.
